Fenlon Fully Focused On Setanta Cup Clash

Even with progress to the semi-finals of the Setanta Sports Cup assured, Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon is focusing his team on winning Saturday’s final pool game against Glentoran.

“We still want to win this match to guarantee a home second leg in the semi-finals,” Fenlon said. “We’re happy enough with how the season has started – two competitive games, two wins. But we want to keep that up.”

In this contest of League of Ireland and Irish League champions, Bohemians have the edge, being unbeaten in the competition so far. They made their debut in the Setanta Sports Cup last August with a 2-1 win in Glentoran’s Oval Grounds. After a lapse of several months Bohs returned to Setanta Cup action two weeks ago with a 3-1 win away to Coleraine.

But Jason Byrne picked up a hip injury in that game and is not available for Saturday, while the three recently signed ex-Derry players, Stephen Gray, Ruaidhri Higgins and Gareth McGlynn are cup-tied.

Fenlon says he now knows his best starting line-up when all players are available but he is forced to adapt for Saturday. “We’ll change it around a bit and give a chance to a few lads who didn’t play on Friday,” he said.

Fenlon had a representative at the Oval last Saturday when Glentoran lost a ‘Big Two’ quarter-final clash in the Irish Cup to their major rivals and league-leaders Linfield. Glentoran are currently third in the league they won last year, though they have won just four of their last ten league matches.

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.